Poorer students losing the race to uni

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Poorer students are steadily slipping behind in the competition for entry into the nation's most prestigious universities. The most disadvantaged students are also increasingly failing to gain a place in high-end courses seen as providing a ticket to financial comfort.

An Age analysis of Department of Education data for the past 15 years reveals that the political stoush over soaring student fees masks a serious education trend: the "two-tier" university system is already entrenched and is steadily worsening, with children from poorer families channelled to less elite institutions and clustered in less prestigious courses if they get to university at all.

Education experts and the universities themselves say that Australia's equity policies, which since 1990 have aimed to boost university participation from target groups, including the disadvantaged and students from the country, have clearly failed poorer students. They point to the need for a political re-think to ensure that bright disadvantaged children are not locked out of university because it is too expensive and because the "Enter" score system tends to favour the children of wealthier, educated parents. "It's like we've got some gridlock in our thinking on equity," said Dr Richard James, a Melbourne University academic who specialises in equity. "We've had a policy framework for so long and it hasn't broken through . . . we have to do some new things, given that things aren't budging."

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Education Minister Brendan Nelson concedes that "it's difficult to see the evidence" that equity goals are working.

A critical reason was the "blunt, inaccurate instrument" of the entrance score, although he defends his new education package, with more money for disadvantaged groups, and $2000 scholarships for poor students. He argued that it was up to the universities to do more, because "I maintain that a student who gets a tertiary entrance score of 70 or 75 in far western NSW has done just as well as a student who gets 90 in my (more affluent) electorate".

Suddenly, universities are announcing a flurry of equity measures to start next year. Melbourne University, the worst equity performer in Victoria, and the biggest champion of full fees in the country, has devised the most dramatic scheme.

From next year, a quota of 20 per cent of new government-funded or HECS places must go to disadvantaged students, and Enter scores will drop until the quota is filled. That will mean about 1000 new students will enter this way next year, a 300 per cent increase on the present scheme. At the same time, the university has 1600 full-fee students enrolled. The Age analysis reveals that:

• At the oldest "brand name" universities such as Melbourne, Sydney, NSW and the Australian National University, the percentage of disadvantaged students remains well below the national average, and in many cases continues to slide. Students from the poorest quarter of the population make up 15 per cent of university enrolments. At Melbourne University they comprised just 7.9 per cent of all students in 2002. At the University of NSW, it has slipped to 4.5 per cent. The Australian National University in Canberra had just 4.5 per cent of disadvantaged students in 1989; now, it is under 3 per cent.

• Overall, the Group of Eight universities - big-name research institutions including Melbourne and Monash universities - are increasingly the preserve of the affluent. In 1991, just over 50 per cent of their students were from high socio-economic backgrounds - by proportion of the population, they would be a quarter. By 2002, it had jumped to 54 per cent. Monash University, due to its rural and outer suburban campuses, has recently increased its enrolment of poorer students, although it slid a percentage point last year, according to its annual report.

• Mid-range and newer universities have taken up the slack, generally increasing their participation from disadvantaged students, but still falling short of equity goals. Some, such as RMIT, have aggressive programs and have seen a gradual lift in poorer student enrolment. In one program, RMIT enrolled almost 500 equity students this year whose Enter scores were well below the official cut-off.

• Only the western suburbs-based Victoria University has achieved a 25 per cent enrolment from low socio-economic students, equal to their proportion of the general population.

• Some research indicates that poorer students, especially men, are increasingly failing to get into higher-end courses, which include medicine and dentistry. Although the raw numbers are small, data shows there has been a 10 per cent drop in disadvantaged Victorian students studying veterinary science since 1996, while enrolments in the course overall have risen 20 per cent. The story is similar for dentistry. These are the courses with Enter scores in the high 90s because of the huge demand, and where Melbourne University is considering offering full-fee places from next year for reportedly as high as about $200,000.

• The proliferation of law courses has meant a rise in the proportion of poorer students, although it has not matched the leap in students from all backgrounds. In the study of education, a relatively low-entrance course, poorer student enrolments are rising. In medicine, special entry for rural students is beginning to have an impact. Even in arts courses, the increase in poorer students is far outstripped by the soaring enrolments overall. Experts say the policy failure is twofold. First, Australia's equity programs are having little impact overall and second, students at prestigious institutions are increasingly from wealthy backgrounds because the prohibitively high entrance scores require more than ability.

Melbourne University's Dr James said the issue of where students were attending was sensitive because it implied that some universities were superior to others, but he argued it did matter if universities such as Melbourne and Monash became clusters of economic, rather than intellectual, prestige, leaving poorer students to attend less elite institutions.

"Equity matters because we know that participation at certain universities and certain courses confer greater social and economic advantage," he said. "If you're genuine about equity you try to maximise equity across the whole system."

With six of eight Victorian universities having announced they will increase their student financial contributions by 25 per cent next year, many institutions are now acknowledging that rising student debt seems incompatible with lofty equity goals.

Federal Labor education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said it was "a bit rich" for universities to raise fees then trumpet equity programs. "The numbers speak for themselves, we have failed these students," she said.

Melbourne University's new scheme means that all of its faculties must set aside one in five new government-sponsored, or HECS, places for poorer students as well as rural students and other under-represented groups.

The university's director of equity programs, Dr Patricia McLean, said "the faculties will have to meet that quota, it's a hard and fast quota" and it would mean that Enter scores for these students could be significantly lower than the published entrance score.

Two hundred students will also be given HECS-exempt places and a living allowance, a jump from 90 spots this year.

"There's been almost no shift in increasing the diversity of our cohort, particularly when you look at low SES, and this is a real effort to hit that head on," she said. "We want to do something dramatic."

The quota will send shock waves through the system, said Monash University researcher Dr Bob Birrell, who has studied the middle-class flight to private schools in the hunt for coveted places at elite campuses.

"There will be a substantial number of people coming from (poor) backgrounds who'll be getting positions which a lot of middle-class people have paid a fortune to private schools in the hope of getting and they are going to feel quite put out," he said.

Dr McLean said that could happen in courses such as medicine and law, where Enter scores were extremely high and which had few poorer students.

"That's not a very useful path to follow. These are highly talented students who would have had no access otherwise," she said.

Monash University vice-chancellor Professor Richard Larkins said that for the first time next year, the university would work with year 10 students from disadvantaged schools around its campuses and would offer scholarships to each of the schools. "No one's put overt pressure on us," he said, "but it's true that we're moving away from accepting the Enter score as a sole indicator (of educational ability) and that will increase."